Comixology's 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Sale

I think we can all agree that the best comics are cheap comics, which is why I always keep an eye on Comixology's sales page to see if there are any good deals to be had. This week, there's a massive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sale, including all ten volumes of IDW's current TMNT series, plus the miniseries collections that go with it. It's a lot of comics, and that presents a problem of its own: With so much out there to get, which ones should you pick up?

This time, the answer's simple: You should get all of it. Seriously. It's that good.

That's the answer I got the last time Comixology had a TMNT sale, and now that I've read 'em all, that makes a lot of sense. Not only is it a really great book, it also builds on itself really well, with Tom Waltz, Kevin Eastman, and a rotating cast of great artists stitching together one of the most compelling ongoing stories in comics. Which, really, is everything I've always wanted to see from TMNT.

The series has, after all, always been kind of cobbled together from a bunch of different parts, from the mysticism of the ninjas to the horror-movie feel of the ooze and the mutants, to the bizarre sci-fi stuff that you get from Krang and the Neutrinos. With this run, the Ninja Turtles are starting over with almost 30 years of history behind them across all media, and they manage to piece it all back together in a way that not only works, but works beautifully.

I've written about the series before --- and really, you will not believe how emotional you are about to get over Rocksteady and Bebop --- but I also realize that jumping onto ten volumes of Ninja Turtles comics (plus two of the Micro-Series, plus Turtles In Time, plus Utrom Empire, and you should probably look for Secret History of the Foot Clan too) is a pretty big commitment to make at one time --- and folks, once you start, you're kind of going to have to get all that.

One of the annoying quirks is that the minis and issues of the Micro-Series take place between the pages of the ongoing, filling in gaps and setting up plot points, which means that as a reader, you're constantly switching back and forth between different books to get the whole story. That said, if we're lucky enough that having too many good comics to read is something we can consider annoying, I'd say we're in pretty good shape.

Obviously, the place to start if you just want to sample the series is in Waltz, Eastman and artist Dan Duncan's first volume, which not only delves into an unnecessarily thorough explanation of the Turtles' mask color, but goes straight into mixing mutation, reincarnation and ninja magic into one story.

If, on the other hand, you're the kind of person who likes to jump ahead, then I can definitely recommend checking out v.8, Northampton, the new series take on the longstanding TMNTradition of heading up to April O'Neil's family farmhouse.

The biggest draw for me in this one is Sophie Campbell. She's one of my absolute favorite artists working in comics, and her work here (and in her two issues of Turtles In Time) is amazing. It's expressive and emotional, and even though I always love seeing her draw action, it works perfectly for the relatively quiet story of the Turtles recovering from the events of City Fall, which might just be the best event comic I've read in years. The character work is really what makes TMNT so appealing, and its on display beautifully here in a way that shows you just why this book is so good. I mean, I never expected to have so many genuine feelings about a sad lady who was also an arctic fox, but here we are.

All told, you can get every piece of the ongoing TMNT saga (which continues monthly in both Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the current miniseries, Mighty Mutanimals) for around $54. That's a pretty hefty chunk of change to drop, but this is a book that's definitely worth it.